How to Save Money on a Disneyland Paris Break

You all probably know that I enjoy a fairly frequent Disney fix but you'll also be familiar with the prices that can sometimes be asked of hotels and holiday companies to visit any place associated with Disney. So I thought I'd do a post on how you can try and get a 'cheap deal'. Granted it's not the cheapest place you could take a holiday but it's significantly cheaper than going to America and there are ways you can do it without breaking the bank:

Go out of season

It might seem like a fairly obvious one but by not going in the summer months it could save you hundreds both on travel, accommodation and park tickets. Obviously we all know that hotels and airlines like to inflate prices during kids holidays but the Disneyland parks also operate on a 'seasonal' price basis so they have 'Mini', 'Magic' and 'Super Magic' dates which are all different prices. All weekends are at least 'Magic' price so if you have the luxury of being able to go during the week then you really should because unless it's school holidays all days during the week come under the 'Mini' price bracket which makes the park entrance fee a little bit more affordable.

Buy tickets before you go

This for me is probably one of the most important things because you can save so much money on the gate price by buying in advance. It can feel like a bit of a minefield because there are different ways you can do it and the cheapest will depend on how many days you plan to spend in the parks and also when you choose to go so careful planning really is key to getting the best value. I'd always recommend getting park hopper tickets as this gives you the ultimate freedom while you're there to go in and out of both parks at leisure.

Here's an example of how different the prices could be:

Because Disney works on a tiered pricing format for their day tickets, if you are visiting for more than one day on a day which is classed as 'Magic' or 'Super Magic' the cheapest option for you is to buy the multi day tickets. You can see a calendar which details all dates and prices on the Attraction Tickets Direct website; just select a date and the price underneath will change accordingly. Multi-day tickets currently start from £120 for a 2 day/2 park ticket which means that you get 2 days in the park and you can hop from park to park as much as you like.

However, if you can go during the week, unless it is the school holidays (and even then, some dates in August this year are actually classed as 'Mini'!) it will cost you less to buy single day tickets if you're going for 2 days; any more than 2 days and you need to buy multi-day tickets.

Example:  August 2018 to visit on Tuesday 28th and Wednesday 29th it would cost £110 per adult to buy 2 x 1 day park hopper tickets (so essentially you'd be buying 4 x 1 day park hopper tickets if there were 2 adults going) whereas the multi-day tickets for 2 days would cost £120.

Stay in a 'Partner' hotel rather than an actual Disney hotel

Although there are some deals to be had for the onsite hotels they will nearly always be more expensive than 'partner' hotels. When I went I stayed in The Kyriad which is a really nice hotel and it has a frequent shuttle bus running guests to and from the parks; it's free and really convenient. The benefits of staying in a partner hotel is that although they're not actual Disney hotels they are 'approved' by Disney so they obviously have to meet certain standards and they are usually quite a bit cheaper than the onsite hotels. There are 3 other partner hotels served by the same bus: Dream Castle, Magic Circus and Explorers. 

You could also stay in another hotel around the parks but make sure, for your own convenience, that it has a free shuttle bus to and from the parks every day. 

If you live in Yorkshire and you don't fancy the idea of flying or you want everything organising for you then you could also use a company like CAB Travel who will sort everything out for you and take you door to door on one of their coaches.